Fiction. If you're familiar with author Kevin Barry's previous work (the noirish, near-future City of Bohane, for one), prepare for something a little different. Beatlebone is set in an imaginary past: John Lennon has escaped Beatles-crazed New York and is trying to get to an island off the coast of Ireland in order to regain his creative equilibrium. As the press pursues Lennon, his eccentric driver hides him in various strange locales (a haunted pub, a primal-scream therapy commune). This unusual, philosophical book is reminiscent of a fable.

A pair of technology experts describe how humans will have to keep pace with machines in order to become prosperous in the future and identify strategies and policies for business and individuals to use to combine digital processing power with human ingenuity. Simultaneous. Book available.

An account of the life of the enigmatic cartoonist-turned eccentric millionaire whose wealth and fame were built from his extensive collection of exotic curiosities offers insight into his innate empathy for the world's marginalized groups and his final years spent on a private island with rare artifacts and unusual pets. Simultaneous.

The author of Holidays on Ice and When You Are Engulfed in Flames provides an original collection of outrageously funny fables featuring animals with unmistakably human failings, including a kitty cat that struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings, squirrel and chipmunk lovers separated by prejudiced family members and much more. Simultaneous.

Fiction. Velvet Vargas is 11 years old when she first visits upstate New York, thanks to the Fresh Air Fund. It's very different from her inner-city Brooklyn home, and her host family is very different from her unstable Dominican mother, who resents them and resists their role in Velvet's life. As she continues to visit over the next three years, she builds relationships with her host mom, an artist and former addict, and her host father, a professor, as well as with a mistreated horse nearby. This novel sensitively treats the complexities of her transition into adolescence through multiple perspectives, which are effectively portrayed by the recording's four narrators.

Sixth grade was supposed to be the year that Jack Callahan would lead his team to a record-shattering season and the Little League World Series, but after the death of his brother, Jack loses interest in baseball and only Cassie, star of the girls' softball team, seems to understand. Simultaneous.

Engaging in secret high-risk activities to escape from her regimented life as a master psychologist, Grace Blades has a one-night stand with a man who turns out to be her new client—one who claims a unique connection to Grace's foster father. By the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Alex Delaware series. Simultaneous.

When a luxurious vacation cruiser in the Red Sea is attacked by Somali pirates, Jake Grafton, Tommy Carmellini, and a team of CIA and Navy SEAL operatives mount an undercover operation to save the hostages and halt a dangerous conspiracy

Autobiography. Best known as Dwight Schrute on television's The Office, comedian Rainn Wilson didn't fit in while growing up (and never was a bassoon phenom), and he struggled financially early in his acting career. He also floundered spiritually until he reconnected with Baha'i, the faith of his childhood. In The Bassoon King, Wilson irreverently and movingly details the challenges of his youth, dishes gossip on The Office, and shares the importance of openly embracing Baha'i and living according to its teachings. His voice as narrator on the recording brings his personality out for both fans of his career and those interested in his spiritual life.